The truth, somehow, keeps leaking out:

Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas was the latest high-profile politician to speak out about the string of sexual assaults in Cologne on Sunday. In an interview with the popular “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper, Maas voiced his suspicions that the crimes which have the whole country reeling were not the result of an opportunistic mob mentality but a thought-out, planned attack on the city’s women.

“No one can tell me that it wasn’t coordinated and prepared,” the minister said. “My suspicion is that this specific date was picked, and a certain number of people expected. This would again add another dimension [to the crimes].”

The newspaper provided details from official police reports citing the use of social networks by some north African migrant communities to encourage their fellows to join them in the square between the Cologne train station and the cathedral, where the now hundreds of incidents of molestation and pick-pocketing took place.

But the Justice Minister added “that it is ‘complete nonsense’ to take these crimes as evidence that foreigners cannot be integrated into German society.” So there. You see nussink. 

Ross Douthat writes that Germany is “on the brink”:

How transformative depends on whether these [Middle East and North African migrant] men eventually find a way to bring brides and families to Europe as well. In terms of immediate civil peace, family formation or unification offers promise, since men with wives and children are less likely to grope revelers or graffiti synagogues or seek the solidarity of radicalism.

But it could also double or treble this migration’s demographic impact, pushing Germany toward a possible future in which half the under-40 population would consist of Middle Eastern and North African immigrants and their children.

If you believe that an aging, secularized, heretofore-mostly-homogeneous society is likely to peacefully absorb a migration of that size and scale of cultural difference, then you have a bright future as a spokesman for the current German government.

You’re also a fool. Such a transformation promises increasing polarization among natives and new arrivals alike. It threatens not just a spike in terrorism but a rebirth of 1930s-style political violence. The still-imaginary France Michel Houellebecq conjured up in his novel “Submission,” in which nativists and Islamists brawl in the streets, would have a very good chance of being realized in the German future.

Speaking of aging, here are some data that forecast a pretty grim century for Europe:

Animated Map: Median Age in #Europe 1960-2060 (Projection). Ping @EvanSinar @galka_max @conradhackett @MaxCRoser pic.twitter.com/OWHZkZJOyv

— Aron Strandberg (@aronstrandberg) January 8, 2016

Animated Map: Median Age in #Africa 1960-2060 (Projection). Ping @conradhackett @MaxCRoser @EvanSinar @galka_max pic.twitter.com/i7RNHXE1C8

— Aron Strandberg (@aronstrandberg) January 8, 2016

Animated Map: Median Age in the #MiddleEast 1960-2060 (Projection) @conradhackett @galka_max @freakonometrics pic.twitter.com/Nal3oEFO4i

— Aron Strandberg (@aronstrandberg) January 9, 2016

Where are all those young men going to go? There is only one answer.

Interestingly, things are evening out between the US and Latin America on this front:

Animated Map: Median Age in the #Americas 1960-2060 (Projection) @conradhackett @EvanSinar @calestous #maps pic.twitter.com/5vg25aUptd

— Aron Strandberg (@aronstrandberg) January 10, 2016

But look at China vs India:

Animated Map: Median Age in #AsiaPacific 1960-2060 (Projection) @conradhackett @galka_max @freakonometrics pic.twitter.com/LrWDOgUxLh

— Aron Strandberg (@aronstrandberg) January 9, 2016